Examples

The yoga he admired was of the philosophical variety that sought the “yoking” of the mind, what Hindus speak of as jnana yoga, not the lower form caricatured in the West as the practice of lying upon a bed of spiked nails or gazing steadfastly at the sun.

One cannot expect Dowd to note that the Bhagavad Gita describes three yogic pathways, jnana (knowledge), bhakti (devotion) and karma (action), or that the Yoga Sutras -- the text most modern yogis consider authoritative -- is almost entirely about consciousness, with barely a mention of asana (and that in the context of sitting posture).

The full benefits of yoga cannot be experienced without also treading the sister paths of jnana yoga (path of knowledge), bhakti yoga (path of devotion to God) and karma yoga (path of selfess action) or the sister tradition of Ayurveda.

His tenure was long enough to write four seminal books that introduced Westerners to the classic yogic pathways -- bhakti (devotion), karma (action), jnana (intellect) and raja (meditative practice) -- and to establish Vedanta Societies in major cities.

They believe in an all-pervasive formless or formed Divine; they believe in the laws of karma, dharma and reincarnation; they tread the various yoga paths (jnana, raja, karma or bhakti); and they accept that the ultimate goal of existence is enlightenment (moksha).